Abraham Fleming (Flemyng, c. 1552–18 September 1607) was an English clergyman. He was a prolific writer and translator, who contributed to others' texts. He was also an editor and poet, serving as a chief to the second edition of Holinshed's Chronicles (1587). Fleming was a manuscript collector. By the 1730s, Fleming's collection was owned by Francis Peck. Its subsequent fate is unclear.
Most likely to have been born in Holborn, London, between 1548 and 1552, Fleming matriculated at Peterhouse, Cambridge as a sizar (a poor student performing duties in return for his tuition) in November 1570, and graduated with a B.A. in 1582.[1] It is likely that Fleming interspersed his studies at Cambridge with extended visits in London to write and translate popular texts on a range of themes, some of which remain in print today. He began his career in spectacular style, becoming the first person to translate a complete Virgilian text (the "Bucoliks" or Eclogues) into English in 1575. He followed this the same year with another complete translation of "Bucoliks", this time in verse. Later in his career Fleming was called upon by other authors to write recommendations for their books and worked alongside notable authors such as George Whetston, Barnabe Googe and Reginald Scot; many of Elizabethan London's leading printers called on Fleming to edit or embellish pre-production texts and he established a network of contacts. He is best known for his once disputed but now acknowledged role as chief editor of and major contributor to the second edition of Holinshed's Chronicles (1587).
Throughout his life Fleming was a godly Protestant. He took holy orders in August 1588 and was ordained deacon and priest by Dr Richard Fletcher at Peterborough Cathedral. Almost as soon as he was ordained Fleming became chaplain to Charles Howard, Lord High Admiral of England, and not chaplain to Catherine Countess of Nottingham as previously thought, although among his papers were prayers said to the Howard family when they were together; in the 1590s Fleming was called as a witness in a court case and stated his occupation as chaplain to Lord Howard. Another error in previous articles about Fleming was that he was an antiquary; he was never a member of the Society of Antiquaries and while he did amass a collection of manuscripts, his motivation for collecting them was not consistent with those of an antiquary. As well as performing the duties of a private chaplain, Fleming was a curate at St Nicholas's Church, Deptford assisting Reverend Thomas Macander (who buried Christopher Marlowe on 1 June 1593, and possibly Fleming assisted with this burial). Between 1589 and 1606 he preached eight times at St Paul's Cross, further evidence that he was a trusted "establishment man"; the sermons are now lost. On 19 October 1593 he was collated by Archbishop John Whitgift to the rectory of St Pancras, Soper Lane, London. He took his work as a rector as seriously as he did his writing; Fleming saw his parish through at least two plagues.
Fleming died at Bottesford, Leicestershire, on 18 September 1607, while on a visit to his brother Samuel, the rector of that parish, and was buried under the chancel inside the church. Despite Fleming's humble origins, his coffin was interred with those of the earls of Rutland. A memorial plaque bearing an epitaph poem written by Fleming marks the approximate site. He was survived by his brother Reverend Samuel Fleming and his sister Hester. Perhaps Fleming's greatest legacy is the fifty known books that he wrote, translated or contributed to.
Most of his manuscript collections were in 1732 in the possession of Francis Peck, who intended to print them in the second volume of his Desiderata Curiosa. They cannot now be traced. Fifty-nine titles are listed in Cooper's 'Athenae Cantabrigienses', including:
